Challenge to Civil Liberties Union Dropped

Published: November 7, 2003

ALBANY, Nov. 6—
The Temporary State Commission on Lobbying has dropped its challenge to the New York Civil Liberties Union over a billboard outside an upstate mall, saying the group no longer has to list the cost of the billboard as a lobbying expense.

In a letter sent to the civil liberties group on Wednesday, David M. Grandeau, the commission's executive director, said ''there is no longer any need to respond'' to an October letter from a commission analyst ordering the group to amend its latest lobbying report to reflect expenses for the billboard.

The New York Civil Liberties Union filed suit on Monday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, challenging the lobbying commission's request. At the time, Mr. Grandeau maintained that the billboard was lobbying because it was unveiled as the civil liberties union was voicing support for a bill in the State Assembly seeking to entitle New Yorkers to exercise free speech in shopping malls.

The sign was erected in March, in response to the arrest of a man for wearing a T-shirt in the mall opposing the planned Iraqi invasion. The civil liberties group argued that the billboard was grass-roots advocacy, not lobbying.

Mr. Grandeau said he dropped the matter because he determined that the group did not pay for the billboard. But the civil liberties union said it had paid for the billboard, and said it would not dismiss its lawsuit.